In this issue we evaluated an assortment of accessories to gauge their effectiveness at making diving more comfortable and more convenient—in a word, easier. Unlike typical ScubaLab tests, some of the products here aren’t designed specifically for divers, and most are for use before or after the actual diving. However, the test gave us a chance to try out a wide selection of gear to identify products that can make diving more enjoyable, but that we wouldn’t cover in our normal head-to-head testing of BCs, regs and the like.

How We Test

The testing was conducted by staff divers during regular ScubaLab test dives of other gear, and during staff dive-travel assignments.

Test divers were asked to score each product from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) on the following criteria:

• Easy to use
• Saves time
• Saves effort
• Adds comfort

Divers also were asked to provide written comments on:

• Whether the product made diving more enjoyable, and why
• Features or capabilities they wish the product had
• Whether they would recommend the product to other divers, and why

Transport

Mac Wagon

We bought one of these folding carts three years ago to transport gear during tests and now have a fleet of four, some of which have traveled cross-country more than once. They have a weight limit of 150 pounds, which we cannot claim to have rigorously honored. Yet while there’s a rusty mark here or there, and some of the wheels squeak a bit, we haven’t managed to break any of them. Our typical load for the 20-by-32-inch bed is three aluminum 80s along with gear bags and/or a healthy load of lead. The telescoping handle tubes, like the rest of the frame, are steel and sturdy enough to pull hard, but the clips that hold them upright when not in use are plastic, and sometimes let the handle fall with a clang. The carts fold up flat in a second, weigh just 22 pounds and take much of the hassle out of transporting piles of gear. “How did we ever get by without them?” commented one tester. How indeed. The Mac Wagon is a Testers Choice for accessories.

Beach Buddy

The Beach Buddy was the only gear-transport accessory we tested designed to go diving with you. You slide your tank into the fabric sleeve and secure Velcro fasteners, then attach your BC and reg and use the D-rings and included bungees to secure it all. The solid base of the Beach Buddy has holes for the wheels to clip in, then you’re ready to wheel the whole works with the handle at the top. At the water, you inflate the BC, go out waist deep or so, unclip the wheels and mount them on the bottom of the base, then slip a stretchy bag over them. The manufacturer claims “you won’t even notice it” in the water, and we found that to be true; in fact, it blends in so well you have to look closely to even see it. The components are marine-specific, heavy-duty and well-made, and the wheels—1½ inches wide and nearly 8 inches in diameter—roll easily on pavement or sand. Because the tow handle is attached with a loop of webbing, it doesn’t offer much leverage and bobs around with each step, sometimes whacking your calf. But for divers who can’t carry the weight on their backs, it’s an option for sites where you can’t leave anything on shore.

Innovative Scuba Concepts Rigid Grip Tank Carrier

Carrying your scuba cylinder like a briefcase is one way to show the fish you mean business. Turns out, it’s also a handy way to keep your tank from whacking steps and low-lying obstacles without having to heft it way up into the air as you do when lugging it by the valve. The nylon harness slips over a tank quickly and is easily secured tightly with Velcro fasteners. The design makes it easy to adjust the diameter of the harness so it works with a variety of tank sizes—though, not surprisingly, the lighter the tank, the better—and the strap keepers on the bottom keep the tank from rolling around when you set it down. The rigid plastic hand grip isn’t exactly ergonomic, but it distributes the weight evenly and is comfortable enough to get you from points A to B. Divers who bring their own tanks will appreciate the simplicity and effectiveness of the carrier; those who need to carry multiple tanks may find it offers diminishing returns, as each cylinder must be set up individually.

Tank Trolley

The Tank Trolley originated as a DIY solution created by a diver who’d had enough of carrying his tank. The trolley’s harness slips onto the bottom of a tank and is secured with a BC tank cam buckle. You can wheel the tank by itself or with your gear set up on the cylinder. Made up of nylon webbing and two plastic wheels about the size of a lawn mower’s, the trolley takes up very little space and is easy to pack even if you don’t have room for a cart. It’s designed to use the tank valve as a handle for wheeling the tank, which led to divers’ biggest complaint: The system is often too short for comfort, causing the tank to ride on the ankles and the diver to lean awkwardly while in transit—even more so if the diver is tall or the tank is short. Unlike the similarly-purposed—and much more expensive—Beach Buddy, the Tank Trolley is not designed for in-water use, so you have to leave it behind on shore while you dive. The big wheels prevent the tank from standing up straight, which can make mounting the Tank Trolley unhandy until you get the hang of it, but they’re perfectly capable of traversing sand, grass, gravel and dirt.

Timber Ridge Folding Cart

Like the Mac wagon, the Timber Ridge cart is a great way to work smarter, not harder. With wide wheels and a carrying capacity of 150 pounds, this cart “hauls heavy stuff over anything,” one tester observed. When folded, it takes up a similar amount of space to the Mac, but the Timber Ridge’s dimensions—long and thin instead of flat and wide—made it more convenient for stowing in a smaller car trunk. The handle has a molded grip and is designed in such a way that it won’t clatter to the floor when you let go of it. The trade­off is that it doesn’t have quite enough leverage to push from the handle. Beefy plastic wheels are just the ticket for traversing sandy beaches, but testers felt they pulled harder (and noisier) on pavement and sidewalks. Collapsing the cart is as simple as pulling up on the center tab, though you must remove the bottom inset first and properly align the tires. Cup holders and a zippered pouch are handy for stowing small accessories. The cart is just as capable and convenient as our Testers Choice—but for nearly double the price, we had hoped it would be twice as good.

Dive More, Work Less
Why a ScubaLab test of carts, hangers and the like? Because the more experienced (i.e., older) we get, the less interested we are in doing things the hard way, whether it’s lugging tanks, suiting up or cleaning gear.

Gear Management

Cressi Tank Strap Weight Pocket

As one test diver noted, there’s “nothing sexy” about trim pockets. But we seldom travel near or far without a set of these. That’s partly because we so often dive with unfamiliar BCs or swap drysuits and wetsuits that we’re constantly shifting a pound or two of lead around to get the trim that’s easier to dial in on gear you use for every dive. Not all BCs have trim pockets, and some that do place them too low, or too near the integrated weight pockets, to have much effect on altering trim. These pockets attach with a double Velcro loop so you don’t need to pull the tank band out of the BC to install them. Each zippered pocket will easily hold a 5-pound soft or hard weight, though a couple of pounds is usually enough to do the job.

Innovative Scuba QD Hose Holder

This quick-disconnect octo and gauge holder uses a simple, non-magnetic latch that’s clever and effective. Metal prongs in the black end of the holder are compressed by a small O-ring, creating enough tension to hold a ball-joint in the red side of the cap in place. The snug fit keeps the two ends securely together, but allows them to pop apart with a stiff pull. The holder mounts to the octo hose with two tiny screws—not exactly hard to do, but keeping track of the small parts would make us hesitant to assemble it on a boat. Divers’ only real complaint was that the holder’s length leaves a long loop in the octo hose. “Feels like it’s always hanging in the way,” said one tester who clipped it to a shoulder D-ring.

Innovative Scuba Fin and Mask Holder

Designed to free your hands from carrying mask and fins, this holder is basically two loops of 1-inch nylon webbing with buckles, and a clip to attach it to your BC. A simple thing, for sure, but it proved handy enough on our shore dives—which involved a fair amount of walking in gear—that test divers tended to hold on to it for rather extended testing, prompting others to ask pointedly when it would be their turn to try it. “What a great idea,” wrote one test diver. It’s available with a gate clip or a snap bolt, in 10 color options. One downside testers noted is more stuff dangling from your BC, though divers with pockets can easily stow it when not in use. The fin-and-mask holder is our Best Buy.

Scubapro X-tek Necklace

The convenience of always having your reg close by makes us wonder why reg necklaces aren’t more widely used by the open-water set. “Never grope around for your second stage again!” wrote one test diver. While we’ve used necklaces with a variety of designs and materials, a plus of this bungee necklace is that, unlike some silicone models, it won’t go positively buoyant in saltwater. Also, the thin bungee material and adjustable loop let you snug the necklace onto any reg, where the thick silicone ones fit some better than others. The only complaint divers had was that when the reg is out of your mouth, it turns mouthpiece-up, which can lead to free-flow if you’re not careful at the surface. The design is, as one tester described it, “Simple, but flawless.”

Maintenance

Underwater Kinetics HangAir Hanger

This is a jumbo hanger rated for 100 pounds, with a built-in electric fan. Who needs such a thing? Turns out we do, although we didn’t know until we tried it during a drysuit test. Few end-of-dive-day chores are as onerous as turning piles of sweaty drysuits inside-out. But string a suit upon the HangAir, plug in the 15-foot cord and with a satisfying whirr it puffs the suit full of drying air that circulates throughout. An hour or two was enough to dry a really damp suit, but what sold us was the thoroughly flooded suit it dried overnight—down to the fleece lining in the toes of the boots. We’ve used it for wetsuits and drysuit undergarments, but it’s drysuits where it really saves time and trouble. The HangAir is our Testers Choice for gear-care accessories.

Underwater Kinetics Super Accessory Hanger

We’ve hung gear out to dry on everything from lawn chairs to car doors, but there’s something to be said for having the right tool for the job. This hanger holds up to 50 pounds and has spots for boots, gloves and hood—each one helpfully labeled. The boot holders—the outer posts—are angled to hold boots toe-up so they can drain well. We especially liked the horizontal bottom hook that holds a hood in its natural shape without stretching it out. One downside is that sopping boots tend to drip onto the hood. That’s no problem if your boots are fresh and clean, but if they smell like ours (i.e., the seventh ring of hell), you might consider our tactic of letting the boots drip out before you hang your hood beneath them.

XS Scuba x5 Accessory Hanger

Another take on the accessory hanger is this one from XS Scuba, which also has dedicated spots for boots and gloves, as well as fins, mask and snorkel—though none specifically for a hood. The boot hooks are slightly taller than on the UK hanger, which makes it handy for larger sized boots. The mask and snorkel hooks are located on the ends of a short plastic crossbar that clips into the hanger a few inches below the top hook and can be removed so the hanger stores flat. While the mask, snorkel and fin hooks were handy features, we missed having a spot for a hood. This hanger is a bit shorter and wider than the UK hanger, but made of similar tough plastic formed in an I-beam shape; it’s strong enough to support as much stuff as you can hang on it.

XS Scuba BC Washout Hose

It can be a pain trying to force rinse water into BC inflators, and we often resort to pulling off the inflator hose or dump valve to speed things up. So this gadget turned out to be a real time saver—taking into account we’re often rinsing several BCs at a time. It screws onto a garden hose and clips to the BC inflator. Put some air into the BC, fill it about ⅓ with water, swoosh it around and release some through each of the dump valves and the inflator, and repeat until it rinses clear and non-salty. (Yes, we taste it, and yes, we know that’s gross.) The hose comes without the Schrader valve, so water flows if it’s not connected to a BC. That’s no biggie if you’re rinsing one BC, but we spent another three bucks on a garden hose on/off valve so we didn’t have to walk to the faucet every time we swapped BCs.

Assorted

DiveOptx Stick-on Lenses for Divers

Even with corrective mask lenses, some of us are finding it tougher to make out the fine print. Made of rubbery plastic, these stick-ons are about the size and shape of the reader sections of bifocals and are available in eight strengths; we tried +2.00, which made it possible to read small computer screens and camera settings more easily. They stick by suction, and once we followed the instructions—everything squeaky clean and let dry 24 hours before diving—they stuck well, never budging after more than 20 dives, but removed easily without leaving a mark. They took a dive or two to get used to, after which we barely noticed them. Defog never loosened them, though in cool water they fogged a bit quicker than the glass mask lens.

ScubaDoRag Accessories

Along with its namesake head gear, ScubaDoRag has a wide variety of eye-catching spandex accessories, the uses of which weren’t always obvious to male testers. (What seemed to be oddly shaped pants turned out to be a “shrug”—look it up.) The assorted rash guards, hoods and hairbands offer serious protection from sun, abrasion and unruly hair, while sharing the same bold designs and colors like “Swurple” and “TurtleLove.” Female testers liked the chance to accessorize. “Very pretty accessory for ocean lovers,” one noted of the long-sleeved FashGuard ($99). For others the clincher was a cool-weather liveaboard trip where a snug 5 mm had ankles rubbed raw by day two. The solution: knee-high ScubaTubeSocks that the suit slipped over like Teflon. In neon-green “Limey Camo.”

SeaCure Custom Mouthpiece

A bad mouthpiece can cause enough discomfort to ruin an otherwise perfect regulator. This moldable mouthpiece is designed to provide a comfortable, personalized fit. Since it contacts all of your teeth, it’s a lot longer than standard mouthpieces. That and its retainer-like fit made some testers wary when they first popped their regs in, though their misgivings were soon forgotten. “Once I got it in the water, I forgot I had it almost immediately,” one diver said. “Much more comfortable and less fatiguing,” another tester wrote. Testers found the molding process (basically dip in hot water, bite down, repeat if necessary) quick and easy, but tended to struggle getting the SeaCure on their regulators since the material is a lot stiffer than standard mouthpieces.

XIT 404 Aqua Pencil Starter Kit

Unlike the well-worn, water-logged golf pencils we typically use during in-water testing, this writing instrument is built to last. If the lead breaks, a twist of the pencil’s end piece will dispense more. (Just be warned, a new stick starts out sharp enough to tear through paper.) The rubberized grip is awkward at first, but not uncomfortable, and writes well whether used right- or left-handed. “Easy to use, and set up,” one test diver noted. The pencil is built to clip directly onto the included slate, but there is an optional flexible mount that can be used with slates of a different thickness. The stretchy tether is made of the same rubbery material as the pencil grip, and makes it easy to secure the pencil and included eraser to a slate, no knots required.